2012, day by day

JAMIE PESOTINE/Staff Photographer
July 11: Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera reminisces with Bob Miorelli, front, and other former parishioners of the now-closed Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church as he attends a dedication ceremony for Catholic Social Services' Our Lady of Mount Carmel Family Center, which is housed inside the former church.

March 22: Tom Gabos, president of the Greater Hazleton Historical Society, looks at coin locks on the stalls of the city's old underground comfort station along East Broad Street. Gabos planned to take one of the stalls for the society's museum before the site was filled in as part of the Broad Street Corridor Project.

Here's a day-by-day look back at the stories that made headlines in 2021.

January

1: Hazleton firefighters use ladders to rescue a woman and a 1-year-old child from the second floor of a smoke-filled apartment building in the 500 block of West Diamond Avenue. Both were taken to Hazleton General Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. The smoke was caused by a candle that burned out on its own.

2: The new Luzerne County Council is seated to begin the county's new home-rule government. Council elected Jim Bobeck chairman and appointed Tom Pribula interim manager. A day later, council voted to reopen the 2012 budget.

3: Beaver Meadows Borough Council retains Michael Morresi as police chief, but only for 24 hours a week - the only police hours available in the 2012 budget. Council previously had decided to lay off Morresi effective Dec. 31, 2011.

Butler Township's new board of supervisors terminates township Manager Steve Hahn and code enforcement officer James Caffray. Newly elected Supervisor Charles Altmiller, the township's former police chief, is named to replace Supervisor Ransom Young as roadmaster.

Carbon County's new Republican majority commissioners vote to reopen the 2012 budget and slash a pay increase for non-union county employees from 5 percent to 3 percent.

4: Devon Reed, a sixth-grader at Drums Elementary/Middle School, wins the Hazleton Area School District Spelling Bee.

5: Hazleton Area School Board approves a building plan that will establish a science, technology, engineering and mathematics magnet school for grades nine to 12 in the CAN DO Corporate Center in Drums and a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in the former Bishop Hafey building in Hazle Township. Also, new classrooms and a new gymnasium will be added to the Ninth-Grade Center on the high school campus.

Penn State Hazleton announces that 25 acres of land valued at $200,000 have been donated to the campus. Chancellor Gary Lawler said the land could be used for new athletic fields.

A toy gun being carried by a 20-month-old child and his grandparent inside Tamaqua Area High School leads to a lockdown.

7: Hazleton police shut down Prestigio Bar and Restaurant, 40 N. Wyoming St., for the evening after a series of fights, one involving a handgun.

9: Two judges from the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals rule Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. will receive government funds to pay his legal fees for his appeal of his conviction in the Luzerne County kids-for-cash corruption case.

11: Orlando Guzman Garcia of Hazleton is one of 50 people indicted for his alleged role in an operation that sold the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens, along with corresponding Social Security cards, birth certificates and other documents, to illegal aliens and other people living in the United States.

12: A 21-year-old woman tells state police that two men attempted to kidnap her in the parking lot of the Hazleton Shopping Center, near Save-A-Lot.

A smoky fire forces residents to evacuate the Freeland Elderly Apartments on Centre Street. The smoke was caused by a clothing-filled plastic bag that was leaning against an electric heating element.

A majority on Luzerne County Council rejects a proposal to raise taxes 3.9 percent.

15: Fires break out in two ovens at Fabri-Kal in the Valmont Industrial Park in Hazle Township. Approximately 80 employees were relocated to a lunchroom while the plant was cleared of smoke.

16: The Turkey Hill convenience store at 15th and Alter streets in Hazleton is robbed for the third time in January. According to city police, three Hispanic men took money from the register and a large amount of cigarettes.

17: Tamaqua Borough Council lowers the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph on two portions of state Route 309 as recommended by a traffic safety proposal from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

18: A fire at a home on Deep Hole Road in Butler Township leaves a couple homeless. The occupants suspected that the blaze started in a woodburning stove.

19: The Hazleton City Authority board votes 3-2 to scrap plans for a water spray park at the McKinley Street water tank site after spending thousands of dollars on related landscaping work.

Pope Benedict XVI announces the appointment of the Most Rev. William C. Skurla as metropolitan archbishop of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Skurla once served as a friar at Holy Dormition Friary in Sybertsville and was ordained to the priesthood in 1987 at St. Mary's Byzantine Church in Freeland.

24: Luzerne County Council hires Robert C. Lawton, 49, of Rio Vista., Calif., as county manager at $110,000 a year.

A fire in the 400 block of West Market Street in Mahanoy City leaves nine people homeless.

The Hazleton Housing Authority board of directors awards a contract to Berger Construction, Freeland, to renovate the lobbies of its three high-rise elderly apartment buildings for $66,845.

25: The Penn State Hazleton community gathers at the Nittany Lion Shrine on campus for a candlelight vigil in memory of the late, beloved Joe Paterno.

26: Fegley's mini-mart in McAdoo is robbed by an armed man who made off with cash, cigarettes, a cigarette lighter and a package of gum.

27: Three people force their way into a home in the 700 block of Garfield Street in Hazleton and steal an undetermined amount of cash at gunpoint.

Samantha Gonzalez of Freeland gives birth to twins in a cell at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. She was arrested a day earlier on an outstanding warrant for a retail theft charge in Schuylkill County. One of the twins died after arriving at a hospital.

30: Maryanne Petrilla is hired as Butler Township manager, returning to the post she held for 11 years before being elected Luzerne County controller in 2005. She replaces Steve Hahn, who was fired by the new majority supervisors on Jan. 3.

Ernest T. Freeby of Lansford is convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, a Kenyan immigrant missing for four years whose body has never been found. He was sentenced to life in prison.

31: A phone call from a neighbor alerts West Hazleton police to a theft in progress at a vacant duplex on East Green Street. Two men were taken into custody after police found a bag filled with copper pipe in the basement. The theft resulted in water being cut off to a home at the rear of the property occupied by 87-year-old Rudy Daniels.

A fire damages four vehicles at 22nd and Grant streets in Hazle Township.

A "cutting instrument" is used in a fight between two 14-year-old boys at Hazleton Area's Ninth Grade Center, according to state police. One of the boys was taken to a hospital, the other to a juvenile detention center on multiple charges.

3: Turkey Hill Minit Market in Hometown and a convenience store near Frackville are robbed at gunpoint. Police believe the robberies are linked to recent holdups in McAdoo, Tamaqua and Kidder Township.

5: A fire caused by an electrical problem damages a duplex at 654-656 S. Kennedy Drive in McAdoo.

6: Neighbors rescue Subrenna and Melvin Lowe from their burning home on Winters Avenue in the Green Ridge section of Hazle Township.

A 3,000-gallon propane tanker flips onto its side along Route 93 in Sugarloaf Township, releasing gas vapors, injuring the driver and shutting down the busy two-lane highway for hours.

Two investigative officers and an attorney with the state Department of Education interview teachers as part of a probe into atypical student test scores in the Hazleton Area School District.

7: A mysterious set of late-night explosions rattle homes and residents in the northeast and Heights sections of Hazleton. City police and firefighters investigated but could not find what caused the blasts. Another blast felt in the same area two days later came from Hazleton Shaft Corp., which has a permit to blast during the day on its property east of North Cedar Street.

8: Banks Township supervisors decline to co-sign a proposed loan to assist the Tresckow Fire Company, citing a possible investigation of the fire company's social club.

9: State Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer visits Hawk Mountain Labs in West Hazleton, which can do the environmental testing required for the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.

13: Kline Township supervisors vote unanimously to remove a trailer from a property on Bruno Avenue after the trailer was found to be in violation of the dangerous structure ordinance.

14: Luzerne County Council votes 6-5 to adopt an amended 2012 budget that increases property taxes 2 percent and will result in about 50 layoffs and the elimination of about 30 vacant positions.

15: Butler Township supervisors Brian Kisenwether and Charles Altmiller announce that they will no longer accept reimbursement from the township for the health insurance they receive through their private employment.

Luzerne County Sheriff John Gilligan is notified that he will be laid off.

16: Tysheed Laron Hargrove is charged with the armed robbery of a convenience store in Kidder Township on Jan. 29. A day earlier, he was charged with robbing a Tamaqua store twice, on Jan. 20 and Feb. 5. Hargrove has been in prison since Feb. 6 when he and an accomplice, Jose W. Nunez of Hazleton, were arrested following a high-speed chase from Tamaqua to Nesquehoning the previous evening.

20: A woman suffers respiratory burns in a fire at 318-320 W. Centre St. in Shenandoah. A borough police officer also suffered burns to his face when he entered the building to help the owner.

21: The Hazleton Area School Board votes unanimously to hire Francis X. Antonelli as district superintendent for a three-year term beginning Aug. 2. Also, Donald Bayzick was promoted to assistant to the superintendent.

Luzerne County President Judge Thomas Burke Jr. proposes a realignment of magisterial districts that would eliminate the Freeland-based district where Gerald Feissner has been the judge for 30 years.

23: Three men are arrested after one of them allegedly stole a diamond engagement ring worth $10,995 after switching it with a plastic ring at Howard's Jewelers in the Laurel Mall.

A Freeland police officer suffers facial and head injuries after he is dragged by a fleeing vehicle while issuing a citation. Officer Matthew Williams was treated at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township. The driver of the vehicle, Michael Mokshefski Jr., 27, of Blakeslee, was apprehended near Effort and arrested on assault and other charges.

24: Kathleen Benyo provides a furnished, handicapped-accessible home on West Fifth Street in Hazleton for Subrenna and Melvin Lowe, whose Green Ridge home was destroyed by fire on Feb. 6.

25: Hours after a couple are found dead inside their home at Split Rock Resort in Kidder Township, Greg Demage, 30, shoots himself to death in Coal Township, Northumberland County, inside a vehicle that was missing from the couple's home. Demage was the grandson of Mildred Carnochan, 75, who was slain along with her husband, John Carnochan, 77. State police said he was the only suspect in the couple's slayings

27: People who helped Subrenna Lowe after a fire on Feb. 6 destroyed the home she shared with her husband, Melvin, are disappointed to learn the woman faces drug charges. Subrenna Lowe said the charges are bogus.

1: Izel and Isiah Garrett each receive life sentences for killing Abdul Hakeem Shabazz, 30, during a drug deal Dec. 6, 2010 in West Hazleton.

6: Fire destroys an apartment building and damages an adjoining house on East Diamond Avenue in Hazleton, leaving 21 people homeless. The blaze was ruled arson by investigators.

9: About 75 people attend a meeting hosted by the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce in an effort to get downtown Hispanic business owners involved in the community.

11: Christopher Rovinski suffers burns in a fire that destroyed his family's home and damaged two others on West Columbus Street in Shenandoah.

12: Frank DeAndrea Jr. is sworn in as Hazleton's new police chief, who stressed in his remarks that teamwork is key to fighting crime throughout the region. He succeeds Robert Ferdinand, who announced his retirement on Jan. 18.

13: State Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-116, and Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, announce that Hazleton will receive a grant for $194,810 from gaming revenues that will allow the Hazleton Integration Project to purchase a building for a community center. A grant also was awarded to West Hazleton for renovations to a building for the Southern Luzerne Regional Police Department; however, hours later borough council voted to abandon the effort.

White Haven Borough Council approves a one-year contract with American Patient Transport Systems, Hazleton, to provide ambulance service to residents after the White Haven Ambulance Association is shut down and its assets seized by the Internal Revenue Service.

15: Eight cadets from West Point Military Academy are injured when their van crashes on Interstate 80 in Sugarloaf Township. Most of the cadets were members of the West Point boxing team and were returning to the academy from a competition at Penn State University.

16: Hazleton police Chief Frank DeAndrea says patrols will be increased around city schools after an the apparent abduction and assault of a 13-year-old girl near Hazleton Elementary/Middle School the previous day.

18: Two Hazleton men, Victor A. Cruz-Romero, 21, and Henry Carrasquillo-Diaz, 37, are arrested hours after a man was beaten repeatedly with a handgun on North Wyoming Street. Police said the man needed 13 staples and nine stitches to close the wounds on his head and face.

20: As spring arrived, the winter of 2011-12 officially went into the record books as the warmest ever in Northeastern Pennsylvania, with an unofficial average temperature of 35.8 degrees.

Hazleton Housing Authority officials ponder legal action against a couple who deceived the authority about their earnings and underpaid rent by more than $4,500 last year.

Hazleton Councilman Jack Mundie urges city residents to appeal the barrage of parking tickets issued by city police over the past few days, saying he hopes District Judge Joseph Zola will take a "common sense" approach to addressing residents' concerns. A handful of city residents who received the fines expressed their concerns at a council meeting.

22: Contractors working on the Broad Street Corridor Project in Hazleton open up the former comfort stations underneath the street for one last look before they're filled in. Tom Gabos, president of the Greater Hazleton Historical Society, was one of those who took a look and said he plans to place one of the stalls in the society's museum.

26: As jury selection for his trial was scheduled to get under way, Angel Sanchez, 21, of Hazleton pleads guilty to third-degree murder in the stabbing death of Vladimir Ruiz, 21, near North Wyoming and Green streets in Hazleton in January 2011. He was sentenced June 14 to 17 to 34 months in prison.

27: A woman and three children die in a fire that destroyed four homes and left 11 people homeless on East Coal Street in Shenandoah. Tiffany Matejick Sanchez, 29, was able to save her son, Diego Sanchez, 8, from the blaze. Another son, 10-year-old Cristian Sanchez, and two nephews, Damian Lopez, 10, and Aziah Hernandez, 7 months, also died.

Hazleton police announce that three arrest warrants have been issued in a gang-related abduction and beating near Hazleton Elementary/Middle School shortly after dismissal on March 15.

A fire damages three homes, two of them vacant, and a garage on West Spruce Street in Mahanoy City. The blaze was ruled arson on April 11.

28: An 11-year-old boy is critically injured when struck by a pickup truck that fled the scene near South Vine and Chestnut streets in Hazleton, while the boy was riding his bicycle.

29: Carlos Cortes, 26, of Hazleton is arrested on charges that he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a pregnant woman, who escaped by diving out of the window of a moving car along Route 940 in Hazle Township, a day earlier.

30: Rodolfo Hiraldo-Perez is convicted of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit homicide in the death of Vladimir Ruiz on Jan. 16, 2011, at North Wyoming and Green streets in Hazleton. On May 29, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 20 to 40 years.

Two people are homeless after a fire damages a home on East Hemlock Street in Tresckow. The home also had numerous code violations, according to Tresckow Fire Company Assistant Chief John McNeal. April

2: Butler Township supervisors say they want to meet with Valley Regional Fire and Rescue officials before agreeing to take on a loan of more than $400,000 to pay the fire company's debts.

3: First Night Hazleton coordinator Lena Kotansky confirms that the event is being discontinued. The next day was Kotansky's last as the city's economic development officer.

A group of Hispanic business owners calling themselves Latino's Media Enterprise unveils a video that it hopes can help unify the community.

4: All three buildings at the Hazleton Area High School campus are on restrictive movement after unspent .22-caliber bullets were found the previous afternoon, after classes had dismissed, in a bathroom trash can at the Ninth Grade Center. Three youths would face charges in relation to the incident.

McAdoo-Kelayres Elementary School students vote for Mustangs as the name of the school's mascot beginning in the next school year.

5: Luzerne County elections director Leonard Piazza is placed on indefinite paid suspension by county Manager Robert Lawton amid a rift between Piazza and Controller Walter Griffith Jr. over audits of campaign finances and office operations. Piazza was fired on April 11, less than two weeks before the primary.

Banks Township supervisors vote 2-1 at a special meeting to fire two streets department employees.

6: Jarvin Malik Huggins, 17, of Mahanoy City is arrested on criminal homicide and other felony charges in relation to the beating death of Gene M. Slavinsky, 48, during a burglary inside his West Centre Street home three days earlier.

8: Catholic Social Services, the Hazleton Fire Department and the United Way of Greater Hazleton team up to provide the first community Easter dinner in the area.

9: Gov. Tom Corbett visits the Luzerne County courthouse to sign two bills bolstering the rights of juvenile court defendants. The laws require that youths be represented by counsel in most cases and that judges state in open court the reasoning behind their sentencing decisions.

12: A minivan crashes into a home in the 900-block of Walnut Street in Freeland, causing structural damage to the porch. The vehicle also knocked down a portion of a fence around a neighboring property. According to borough police, the driver was speeding away from an officer who was attempting to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation.

13: The United Way of Greater Hazleton reports that its 2012 fund drive collected $649,382, more than $150,000 less than the amount raised the previous year.

15: A man sustains head injuries in a fight involving baseball bats at the Hispanic Modified Softball League's pre-season practice at the Jake Kislan Softball Complex in Drifton.

16: A man who shrouded his face with a surgical mask and what appeared to be surgical gauze robs an undetermined amount of money from the PNC Bank branch on Susquehanna Boulevard in Hazle Township less than a half-hour after it opened.

17: Two tractor-trailers collide on Interstate 80 in Sugarloaf Township near the Conyngham exit. One of the rigs, hauling pet food, caught fire, which spread to a nearby wooded area. Eastbound traffic was backed up seven miles at one point before being detoured off I-80 at the Mifflinville exit.

18: A federal bankruptcy judge orders Saint Catherine Medical Center Fountain Springs to convert its bankruptcy petition from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, which allows for liquidation of its assets.

20: A man wearing a surgical mask robs money from Choice One Community Credit Union in Hazleton just before closing time.

23: An early-morning traffic stop on a car traveling the wrong way on a one-way street in Hazleton results in the arrest of three suspects in a robbery at Pantry Quik on East Diamond Avenue the previous evening. Police said they believe the trio was planning another robbery.

24: Shawn Luther Kelley, 33, of Hazleton is taken into custody at North Locust and 21st streets in Hazleton less than two hours after a robbery at Citizens Bank in West Hazleton. Earlier in the day, state police identified Kelley as a suspect in the robbery of PNC Bank in Hazle Township on April 16, and later said he also was suspected in a robbery at Choice One Community Credit Union in Hazleton on April 20. The FBI "adopted" the case a day later and filed federal charges instead against Kelley.

The primary: Moosic attorney Matthew Cartwright ousts 10-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Holden in the newly configured 17th District. Hazleton Area School District voters approve a referendum to provide a dedicated tax millage rate to fund the Hazleton Area Public Library.

25: Make It Better LP, a partnership that includes U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta and Stephen Walser, former general manager and publisher of the Standard-Speaker, buys Edgewood in the Pines golf club and restaurant for $537,500 from Orix Capital Markets of Dallas.

Contractors building a bridge along state Route 309 in Tamaqua accidentally drill through a concrete sewage pipe, causing up to 1.8 million gallons of sewage to spill into the Little Schuylkill River.

27: More than 8,000 PPL customers lose power due to an attempted theft of copper wire from a live transmission line in Hazle Township.

28: Three men, including Noel Lyttle, 27, of Freeland, are taken into custody outside a White Haven convenience store and charged with allegedly kidnapping a man in Blakeslee. While his alleged captors filled their vehicle with gasoline, the victim told an employee at Joe's Kwik Mart that he was being held against his will.

May

2: A mattress left outside a West Hazleton apartment building is set on fire near an entryway, forcing eight residents to flee. Damage was minor.

3: Gunshots are fired into an unoccupied car in a parking lot at North Wyoming and Green streets after an argument at a nearby restaurant. The bullet apparently went through a window at Attitudes salon, located a block away.

4: Benjamin Tyrell Westbrooks is convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Alicia Weaver of Hazleton on Nov. 18, 2010. Westbrooks asked to be sentenced immediately, and was given a mandatory life sentence without parole. His attorney said he would appeal.

Michaels craft store opens in the Valmont Plaza in West Hazleton.

8: The United Way of Greater Hazleton names the late Rev. Patrick Genello its Volunteer of the Year for 2011. It is the first time the award was given posthumously.

10: Jaboar Stanley pleads guilty to third-degree murder for fatally shooting Emmanuel Felix, 20, in February 2011 during a poker game at the Hazleton duplex they shared.

West Hazleton firefighters, assisted by borough Patrolman Daniel Sist and Eddie Kulaga of Kulaga's Towing, rescue six ducklings from a storm drain between Park and Harvey streets.

Hazleton City Council authorizes the administration to claim the former Greco Centrum property at West Broad and Laurel streets by eminent domain. Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi has proposed construction of a robotic parking garage with retail and office space on the site.

14: Tamaqua and Coaldale file separate lawsuits in Schuylkill County Court alleging that Municipal Energy Managers Inc. breached a contract to buy and operate the boroughs' streetlight systems and kept the money it was paid.

15: An 18-year-old West Hazleton man and four juveniles from Hazleton are charged after breaking into the former Hazleton-St. Joseph Medical Center on North Church Street in the city.

17: Revenues exceeded expenses by $11.7 million at Hazleton General Hospital in 2010, according to a report issued by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. CEO James Edwards said earnings in 2011 were $10.3 million.

Alfonso Saba and Xiomara Campos, both 25, who were free on bail awaiting prosecution on drug charges, face new charges after cocaine is found in their home on South Pine Street in Hazleton 37 days after the original raid there.

20: Hazleton High School Class of 1942 holds its 70th, and final, reunion.

21: The Dorrance Township Planning Commission recommends to the township supervisors that a conditional use permit be granted to Pennsy Supply Inc., which wants to move Small Mountain Quarry to the other side of Small Mountain Road. The permit would allow the quarry to operate during specific hours.

Shenandoah Mayor Michael Whitecavage informs borough council that he intends to resign, effective July 1. Whitecavage said a recent promotion "does not give me significantly enough time to do the duties of mayor."

23: Luis Gonzalez, 18, of Hazleton is charged as a juvenile with homicide by motor vehicle for a crash that killed Paul DeNoia, 18, of White Haven, on Oct. 15, 2011, on Club 40 Road in Hazleton.

30: About 100 residents attend a meeting in White Haven to express their concerns about truck traffic along state Route 940 in the borough.

June

2: David Dallus Cunard, 46, is taken into custody at his home on Harrison Street in Hazleton and charged with robbing PNC Bank in Mahoning Township on May 31, police said. While in prison, Cunard admitted to a May 24 robbery at KNBT in North Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, police said.

3: Multiple gunshots are fired at an unoccupied vehicle parked near North Wyoming and Fourth streets, about three hours after a similar incident at the same intersection.

4: A woman's purse is stolen as she went to PNC Bank on Main Street in White Haven to make a deposit.

7: A sixth purse snatching is reported in downtown Hazleton in less than a month.

8: Craig and Shawn Christy are sentenced to time served plus five years' probation for harassing Sarah Palin's Alaska lawyers. On Nov. 28, Shawn Christy was taken into custody again for violation of his parole.

Two bear cubs draw at least 20 spectators to a backyard in Tresckow.

11: A pilot lands his plane in a cornfield in Drums after it ran out of fuel. Thomas Hall of Eagle Rock said he was "very grateful" nobody was injured.

Wright Township police Sgt. Royce Engler is promoted to chief. He succeeds Joseph Jacob, who retired June 4 after leading the department for nearly 20 years.

13: A bake sale is held at Church Hill Mall as part of National Lemonade Stand and Bake Sale Hug-a-Thon Day, an event promoted by conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck and his nonprofit organization Mercury One.

14: Two women are found lying on the ground at Altmiller Playground in Hazleton. Both were taken to Hazleton General Hospital. City police said one of the women alleged that she was sexually assaulted.

16: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney talks jobs in a speech at Weatherly Casting and Machine Co., a stop on his "Believe in America: Every Town Counts Bus Tour."

17: A lit cigarette in a trash can causes a fire in the attic of a home at 214 E. Noble St. in Hazleton.

18: Derrick M. Donchak and Brandon J. Piekarsky must stay in federal prison for their hate-crime convictions stemming from the fatal beating of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala in Shenandoah in July 2008, a federal appeals court rules, stating there was no basis to overturn their convictions and nine-year sentences.

Eric Briggs, 27, of Harrisburg needed stitches after defending himself against a man armed with a switchblade who wanted to steal Briggs' wallet at a convenience store at Route 93 and Tomhicken Road in Sugarloaf.

19: Tamaqua Area School Board adopts a 2012-13 budget that doesn't raise taxes but cuts funding for tennis, golf and cheerleading, and elementary library and physical education. The sports and cheerleading will remain in place if booster clubs can finance them.

20: Butler Township road workers install stop signs along West Butler Drive at its intersection with Old Turnpike Road, making the intersection a four-way stop. Township supervisors believe the intersection will now be safer for motorists and for children going to nearby Drums Elementary/Middle School.

21: Banks Township hires a private hauler to collect garbage on one of the hottest days of the year after all three of its part-time workers with commercial driver's licenses were unavailable to drive the garbage truck. Rizzo Disposal Services, Hazleton, was hired for $1,965.

23: Two teenage boys suffer moderate injuries when their all-terrain vehicle crashes into a car at South Pine and East Market streets in Tresckow.

25: A 69-year-old woman scares three youths from her home in the 900 block of Meade Court in Hazleton. The same trio is suspected of trying to break into a home in the Northgate section of Hazle Township a half-hour earlier. The three teenage boys from Paterson, N.J., were apprehended after their van - containing jewelry and other stolen items - broke down along Interstate 80 in New Jersey.

27: A man is rescued from a retention pond near Giant supermarket in Hazleton. City police said Anthony Sudziarsky, 61, told officers he was pushed into the pond by gang members but actually fell in and couldn't get out because he was drunk. He was taken to Hazleton General Hospital for treatment of injuries and police said he would be cited for public drunkenness.

28: Hazleton Area School Board adopts a 2012-13 budget that raises taxes for property owners in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties, eliminates several employees including director of transportation and reduces the salaries of two other administrators.

A late-night fire damages a three-story apartment building in the 400 block of West Broad Street in Hazleton.

29: Hazleton Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi announces that he will no longer attend city council meetings, nor will the solicitor and department heads.

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U.S. Homeland Security remains in charge of the fate of Affre Ortega-Beato, 42, of the Dominican Republic, a fugitive and drug suspect captured during Friday’s multi-agency raid in the Buttonwood Street row houses in Hazleton. U.S. Marshals in Scranton
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